Today I have a very serious question for you. What is your opinion on pairing chocolate with fruits? I live with a huge opponent of this combination and I have to admit that I do sometimes agree with him. I don’t like all fruit and chocolate combinations (for example chocolate and orange). I don’t care about most. But there is one I really, really love. And that is cherry and chocolate.
First of all, cherries and chocolate just look great together, don’t they? And of course there’s the taste which I love. Cherries are sweet and they blend in much better than raspberries or strawberries. But there’s also a very practical reason: cherries are sturdy. They keep their shape and their texture. And they add moisture. Which means if you add these to a chocolate cake, you’re in for a treat that is not too sweet, perfectly moist and that will just melt in your mouth. And that every fruit and chocolate combination hater will love. At least the one I know did.
Since we’re talking about perfect. Of course this is not your traditional guglhupf. A traditional guglhupf comes by many names (guglopf, gugelhupf, kugelhopf, kouglof, and so forth and so forth), is made with an enriched yeasted dough, has raisins instead of cherries, definitely no chocolate, and looks like this.
I refused both to use a traditional recipe and the traditional pan. I chose a regular bundt pan instead and made a baking powder batter. And while I was at it I went back to basics and added regular firm tofu. Remember? Back in the days when vegan baking was still a miracle we used to do that all the time. It’s better than black beans or beets, I say! But honestly nobody will taste the tofu and it adds a lot of moisture to this cake. And for those of you who aren’t friends with coconut oil: This cake has a coconut oil-free option.
Oh, did I mention this cake is moist and just really the perfect chocolate cake? Because it is! Make it. I promise you won’t regret it.
For the filling, you can use either fresh or canned cherries. I just went with canned because they were already pitted and I am just as lazy as the regular person. It also ment I could snack on all those fresh cherries that I didn’t need for decoration.
Before you start mixing this batter I should also tell you that it is going to be a very thick almost bread like batter. Something quite typical for the cake recipes you can find in Germany. So please trust me, it will all work out!
Oh and if you’re wondering already about how to get those cherries to sit on top of your cake: have some toothpicks ready. Dip the cherries in chocolate, place them on your cake, fixate them with the toothpick and then push the toothpick into the cherries so it’s not visible anymore. But please don’t forget to tell your guests about this little secret. They should search for the picks and remove them before biting into their slices.
Chocolate Cherry Guglhupf
- For the cake
- 240 ml 1 cup soy or almond milk
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 120 ml 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 250 g 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 100 g 3.5 oz firm tofu
- 400 g 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 20 g 1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 100 g 3.5 oz dark chocolate
- 160 g 1 cup canned or fresh pitted cherries.
- For decoration
- 100 g 3.5 oz dark chocolate
- 1 teaspoon refined coconut oil (or any vegetable oil)
- about 25 fresh cherries
- toothpicks
- To make the cake preheat oven to 160° (325°F). Grease a bundt pan (25 cm diameter) and set aside.
- In a blender combine soy milk and vinegar and let sit for 2-3 minutes or until curdled.
- Add oil, sugar, vanilla, and tofu.
- Blend until smooth.
- Sift flour and cocoa in a larg bowl.
- Add baking powder, soda, and salt.
- Stir well.
- Melt the chocolate over a water bath.
- Add liquid ingredients and use a handheld mixer to blend all ingredients until smooth.
- Fold in chocolate and blend again.
- Scoop half of the batter into the pan and sprinkle half of the cherries on top.
- Add the remaining batter and then press the remaining cherries into the batter.
- Bake the cake for 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan.
- Let cool completely.
- To decorate melt choclate and coconot oil in a small bowl and stir well.
- Reserve half of the cherries and dip the remaining fruits in the chocolate.
- Use toothpicks to fixate the cherries on top of the cake. make sure to leave enough space for the remaining cherries.
- Pour the remaining chocolate over the cake.
- Add the remaining cherries and place the cake in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes before serving.
20 comments
Hmm cherries are near impossible to find where I live. Do you think this could work with raspberries? Or strawberries? May not be as pretty as the cherries but I know I can find those
That might ruin the texture, because both raspberries and strawberries are so much softer than cherries. But you could try.
What is the purpose of using tofu in this recipe? Is there a way to make it without using tofu? THANKS!
You can find the info about the purpose of the tofu in the post. It adds moisture and texture. You could try to use soy yoghurt instead.vBut maybe you’ll have to adjust the amount of liquid and use less soy milk in that case.
Has anyone tried making this with a sugar substitute? What did you use and did it work out?
Sorry, but this blog specifically encourages the use of sugar. I am sure you can find lots of great recipes without on the internet these days though. Cheers!
https://www.seitanismymotor.com/2016/05/why-i-still-use-refined-white-sugar/
Looks great! You mentioned a coconut oil free option, but I can’t seem to find the altered recipe. Is there a link to it somewhere?
Also is it a coconut oil and vegetable oil free option as well? I am on a no-oil no-sugar diet so it is great to find alterations and substitutions :)
There is only coconut oil in the glaze (1 teaspoon). Check the recipe, it calls for coconut oil or vegetable oil.
Also, I have to apologize,but no, there isn’t an oil-free version. If you are looking for oil- and sugar-free recipes I am sorry to say that this is the wrong blog for you to look at. I always use lots of sugar and oil in my recipes. Sorry, again!
Chocolate cherry is one of my very favourite combinations. And this looks amazing! Yay for coconut oil free option. :D
Holy moly. These pictures are just stunning. I just finished eating a huge bowl of cherries. I love cherries so much. It would be hard for me to cook with cherries because I’m usually so busy eating them by the handful. However, this cake looks like it might be worth the effort of self-restraint!
I love chocolate and anything, and that includes fruits especially cherry, strawberry, orange, raisins,….match made in heaven, though perhaps just a smidge less heavenly than choc and nuts.
I am a HUGE fan of the fruit & chocolate combo. You pretty much can’t go wrong with it in my eyes but I did once try a raw chocolate bar with lemon which was beyond awful so it’s not foolproof! This cake looks epic as always and I love the toothpick tip – thanks for sharing.
This is beautiful. I love fruit and chocolate, almost all of the time, I can’t really think of any fruits I don’t like with chocolate! Unfortunately most of my family are of the opposite opinion so I have to seek out special occasions to make chocolatey fruity things. I will have to add this recipe to my „special occasion“ folder :)
So it looks like I am not the only one who has such a folder. :)
Früher mochte ich Schokolade nur in Kombination mit Banane. Dann probierte ich aber viel aus und inzwischen finde ich, dass jedes Obst seinen Reiz, v.a. Him-, Heidel-, oder schwarze Johannisbeeren finde ich super lecker.
Dein Kuchen sieht klasse aus (sooo schöne Fotos) und erinnert mich daran, dass ich auch bald wieder Gugelhupf backen sollte – am besten mit viiiiel Schokolade. :-)
Danke für die tolle Inspiration!
Banane und Schoko finde ich total schrecklich. Leider. Aber Johannisbeeren und Brombeeren sind auch gut. Ich merke gerade, es ist gar nicht so schlimm, wie ich dachte.
wow that is gorgeous – I am all for chocolate and fruit esp cherries – I paired chocolate and figs last week which I loved! And I think one of the first vegan cakes I made had tofu in it – interesting that it was followed by beans and bean water given that tofu is actually bean derived as well
I haven’t thought of figs. But I think that combination would work for me, too.
This looks so good, and these photos are the most beautiful cake photos I’ve ever seen!
Thank you, Erin!
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